Synology Photos vs Immich vs Nextcloud Compared
Users regain control over the storage location of their photos and videos by shifting a photo library away from Google Photos, iCloud, or another public cloud service. This is especially attractive with a Synology NAS as it can all be done from the same device providing large local storage, redundancy, backups and remote access.
DSM comes with Synology Photos for easy access. Immich is a modern self-hosted photo-centric platform with advanced search and recognition capabilities. Nextcloud takes a broader private-cloud view of the problem, where photos are just one part of a larger file-sharing and collaboration ecosystem.
All three support self-hosted storage, but they target slightly different users.
Synology Photos: Easiest Way for Synology Owners
For anyone who already has a Synology NAS that works with it, Synology Photos is typically the easiest place to start. The app is built specifically for DSM offering chronological and folder browsing, albums, sharing, mobile access and automatic phone backup.
Today, Synology offers iOS and Android apps, mobile photo/video auto-backup, Shared Space, share links with password and expiration date, and auto-albums based on location, tags, faces, and recognised objects. No separate docker stack to maintain, no external database or 3rd party photo server. Its biggest advantage is the integration.
Synology Photos Works With Your Existing NAS Organization
Synology Photos is especially well-suited for users who want to keep a traditional folder hierarchy.
You can browse photos by chronology or by folders. This makes the system suitable to users who already maintain standard libraries like:
Photos → 2026 → Family trip
rather than wanting an application to completely change how their files are organised.
Synology has personal and shared photo spaces, so an individual’s library can be different from family members or team-shared media.
Synology Facial and Object Recognition
Synology Photos supports facial recognition as well as object recognition on supported hardware.
The People album can group detected faces and Subjects can arrange photos by detected content.
But the features are also dependent on the NAS.
This is very evident in the hardware specifications that Synology currently offers. For example, object recognition on DS225+ requires at least 4 GB memory for the system.
If you’re after a NAS that can do photo AI features, make sure you check the capabilities of the specific model you’re looking at, as not all Diskstations will have the same recognition features.
Immich: A Self-Hosted, More Photo-centric Experience
Immich has become an appealing option for users seeking a self-hosted photo platform that feels closer to today’s cloud photo services.
Its current feature set includes automatic mobile backup, multiple users, facial recognition, albums, partner sharing, public links, maps, memories, duplicate detection, RAW support, Live Photos, Android Motion Photos, hardware video transcoding and natural language smart search.
This makes Immich much more than just a simple web gallery.
For example, its contextual search employs machine-learning models to interpret image content so users can search with descriptive language, not just filenames and manually created tags. The existing search functionality can also be used on people, locations, OCR text, camera information, tags, time ranges and other criteria.
For very large libraries, that can make a big difference to how people find old photographs.
Immich Mobile Backup Is A Major Advantage
Immich has dedicated iOS and Android apps, and can auto-upload photos and videos to the self-hosted server.
You can select which albums on your devices to protect and which to exclude. Immich also does checksum-based deduplication during backup to find assets already on the server.
The album backup sync is a one way sync from the mobile device to the server so users should understand that this is not the same as keeping a fully mirrored photo library between the phone and the server.
For users coming from a mainstream cloud photo service, the combination of timeline browsing, automatic uploads, people recognition, maps, memories and smart search can make Immich especially appealing.
Can Immich Retrieve Photos Already Stored on a Synology NAS?
Yes, and this makes an interesting option for Synology owners.
Immich supports External Libraries, which means you can mount and index existing photos stored outside of Immich’s normal upload directory. So, a power user on Synology could have the actual photo files in an existing NAS directory and just use Immich as the interface to browse and discover them You can safely mount an external library read-only. Immich then goes through those files and builds its own database and metadata for them.
One important architectural point is that information created within Immich for an external asset is not directly written into the original file but instead lives in the Immich database. So just protecting the photos is not always enough.
Immich needs to do more backup planning
This is one of the biggest differences from just installing Synology Photos.
The documentation for Immich specifically states that “the database backup contains the metadata and user information, but not the actual uploaded photos and videos.” So, a complete backup plan has to protect both:
Photo/video storage + Immich DB
The technically inclined home user can deal with this.
So, if you want to install one Synology package and administer it once in a blue moon, Synology Photos might be more attractive with the extra components.
Nextcloud: Photos in a Larger Private Cloud
Nextcloud does things differently. Nextcloud is not a photo-server product by nature. It is a larger self-hosted collaboration and file platform. This is an important difference. Someone using Nextcloud might also want private file storage, sync, sharing, calendars, contacts, communication, office collaboration and other services.
Photo management is one piece of a larger private-cloud environment. The Nextcloud ecosystem also has photo-oriented extensions. Its current app store bills Memories as a featured, highly rated photo-management suite and recognise for on-premises smart media tagging and facial recognition. This modularity allows for a great deal of flexibility, but it also means that a sophisticated photo experience might be assembled from several components rather than delivered as one tightly integrated application.
Nextcloud is better if photos are not the only goal
Say there are two users.
The first one says:
“I want an alternative to Google Photos, but private.”
More natural starting points are probably Immich or Synology Photos.
The second reads:
“I want my own private Google Drive type environment for documents, photos, calendars, sharing, collaboration.
Nextcloud becomes a lot more interesting.
Its strength is the wider ecosystem.
The trade-off is administration. Nextcloud itself, its database, web stack, applications, updates, caching, background jobs and photo extensions may need a bit more attention than simply installing Synology Photos directly from Package Center.
Synology Photos vs Immich vs Nextcloud
| Feature | Synology Photos | Immich | Nextcloud Ecosystem Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Synology integration | Excellent | Separate deployment required | Must be deployed separately |
| Simplicity of setup | Excellent | Moderate | Moderately advanced |
| Mobile photo storage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Timeline browsing | Available | Yes | Yes |
| Facial recognition | Model dependent | Yes | Via apps |
| Object/Intelligent Recognition | Strong | Via apps | model dependent |
| Search photos in natural language | More limited | Strong | Depends on applications/configuration |
| Current folder structure | Strong | Third Party Libraries | Strong |
| Lots of people | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Focus on pictures | Strong | Strong | Moderate |
| Cloud collaboration at greater scale | Good | Limited | |
| Administration required | Low | Moderate | High |
| Best Fit | Owners Synology | Photo buffs | Users of private clouds |
Specific capabilities can vary with software releases, hardware and installed Nextcloud applications, so this table should be considered an architectural comparison, not a permanent feature checklist.
Which Is Best for Families?
If you already own a Synology NAS and just want everyone to automatically protect and browse their phone photos, Synology Photos is hard to beat for convenience.
Less components to maintain DSM handles the underlying environment and the mobile applications connect directly to the NAS.
Immich becomes more appealing when the family is looking for richer photo discovery, modern search, advanced recognition, partner sharing and an experience centred around the photo library.
Which One Is The Best For Photo Lovers?
Immich deserves serious thought.
For technically comfortable users it combines RAW support, smart search, facial recognition, maps, metadata search, external libraries, duplicate detection, albums, and modern mobile applications to give a lot of control over a large self-hosted library.
Therefore, running Immich on Synology can be an interesting combination:
Synology for storage + Immich for photo management
The tradeoff is that the administrator is responsible for maintaining the additional application stack.
Which Is Best for Businesses?
The answer depends very much on what you want to do.
If your business already has Synology infrastructure and needs simple internal photo organization or shared media libraries, Synology Photos might be enough.
Synology’s Shared Space allows for folder-level access and editing permissions, which the company specifically positions for collaborative scenarios such as freelancers working with clients.
If the organization wants a much broader self-hosted collaborative environment, Nextcloud might make more sense.
Immich is at its best when the library of photos and videos is the primary requirement.
A business deployment should think about identity management, permissions, remote access, backup, update procedures, monitoring and support, not just which gallery interface looks best.
Don’t Forget to Backup the Image Server
Self-hosting means no dependence on a consumer photo cloud subscription, but it also means all data protection is your responsibility. A Synology with RAID protection is not a backup by itself.
A strong photo architecture might include:
Phone → Synology/Immich/Nextcloud → Local protection → Backup elsewhere
For Synology Photos, you can include important photo folders into the NAS backup scheme.
For Immich, protect the underlying media and application database. Immich itself recommends a 3-2-1 approach and emphasises that both are required for full recovery. Nextcloud deployments also need protection of the files and application environment used for recovery. Family photographs often span years and cannot be replaced. Their self-hosted server should not be their only copy.
Which self-hosted photo solution should you use?
Synology Photos has the best native Synology integration and is the easiest solution. If you need a modern photo-first platform with great search and recognition, check out Immich. If you want photos as part of a larger private-cloud and collaboration platform, try Nextcloud.
And there’s no need to see Synology hardware and third-party photo apps as rivals, either. A Synology NAS will give you a solid centralised storage solution, while apps like Immich or Nextcloud will give you a different software experience on top of that infrastructure.
The big choice is whether you want simplicity, advanced photo intelligence or more private-cloud functionality.
Choose the right photo platform with expert Synology consulting.
About Epis Technology
Epis Technology assists organisations in creating Synology environments that extend beyond file storage. Services include Synology deployment & support, NAS capacity planning, private-cloud infrastructure, docker & application hosting, secure remote access, networking, photo & media storage, hyper backup, snapshots, off-site protection, Microsoft 365 & Google Workspace backups, cybersecurity and disaster recovery. Epis Technology can help you decide whether native Synology applications or self-hosted services are the best choice for a certain environment, in terms of usability, performance, security, maintainability, and long-term data protection.